Self-closing tongs



mmm?? Nov 58, 1927.

R. ADAMS Y SELF CLOSING ToNGs Filed Oct M fw Nov. 8, 1927.

R. ADAMS SELF CLOSING Toms Filed Oct.' 28. 1924 Patented Nov.. S, 1927.

#imitan STATES orifice.

' EoBEa'r ADAMS, or Los ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, AssIeNoE 'ro E. o. wILsoN, or Los ANGELES, voaLIEoRNIa.

sELE-oLosINe Tones.

Application led October 28,1924. Serial No. 746,257.

This invention relates to tongs such as are operator. The invention itself will be best used on pipe and other cylindrical work; understood from the following detailed deaiid although the invention is not at all scription of a preferred form thereof asapnecessarily restricted to such use, I shall plied to the specified type of tongs, reference f describe and illustrate it as used on well for these purposes being had to the accom- 60 pipe,`rotary drill pipe, and the like. Inl panying drawings wherein: such uses the tongs are necessarily very l Fig' lis a plan showing my invention heavily made, and are very heavy and difapplied to the tongs, this figure showing the icult to handle; and it is a general object tongs in the position closed to take a smaller l0 of this invention to provide a simple and -`sized pipe;

improved arrangement whereby such tongs l Fig, 2 is a similar plan showing the posimay be automatically closed upona pipe tions' of the parts while the tongs are being with a minimum of manual operations. placed upon and'closed about such a pipe;

liu describing a preferred and typical Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 1. showing form of my invention, I shall describe and the tongs closed about a larger sized pipe, 70 illustrate it as applied to that specific type and showing parts in section for purposes of of tongs known to the trade as the Wilson illustration; and I tongs, and which is described in E. C. lVil- Fig. 4 is a view illustrating the action as sons patent on tongs, No. 1,561,963, granted 'the parts are'closed about such larger sized 2" November 17, 1925, and' also his patent on pipe. 75 pipe tongs No. .1,575,141 granted March 2, In the drawings I have shown a handle 1926. klt will be understood that this spel() which may be of any convenient length, ciiic illustration 0f' my invention as applied and it will be understood that tongs of this to that specific type of tongs is not necescharacter are usually supported upon a sarily a limitation upon the invention,'al crane or other overhead support by some at- 80 though in some of its more specific aspects tachment to the handle, the members shown the invention has features of combination at 11 being a part of such supporting attachwith such a tongs. ment. Pivoted to the handle at `oifset pivv ln such'tongs, and particularly wherey they ots 12 and 13 are two pipe encircling and 3" are used in oil-well work under heavy gripping elements which are, in this specific 85 stresses, and where facility and quickness of illustrative embodiment of my invention, operation is very desirable, it is highly deeach shown as being made up of two segsirable to have such tongs automatically ments or jaws. Thus, two inner segments closing or self-closing so as to 'require on or jaws 14 and 15 are pivoteddirectly to the the part of the operator minimum effort and handle at pivots 13 and12, respectively; and 90 a minimum number of separate operations. two outer segments or jaws 16 and `17 are Usually, in the use of such heavy tongs, it pivoted at pivots 18 and 19 to the outer has in the past been necessary for one oper ends of the two inner segments 14 and '15,y ator to place the tongs upon the pipe and u respectively. Swinging of handle 10, as -Y another operator to close the tongs around will be well understood, causes those se 95 the pipe, or has required of a single operments to constrict arounda pipe orto bac ator the performance ofy a number of awkoi and loosen around a pipe, the'handle ward operations. There has later been probeing moved in the direction indicated by posed, and `there has been applied to the the arrow in the various views to constrict Wilson tongs, a self-closing device that autothe segments about a pipe, and being moved 100 matically closes the tongs around the pipe; in the opposite direction to back off the segyand my present invention relates to improvements or loosen them about a pipe.

ments in such self-closing devices. While One of the outer segments as 16 carries I do not claim as my invention the broad at its outer end a pivoted latch member 20 v idea of automatic or self-closing of such which latch member hasa latching shoulder 105 tongs upon a pipe, my inventiondoes com- 21 adapted-to drop over and contact withy rehend a simple structure that can easily either of a plurality of lugshoulders, which lie embodied in such`tongs to enable them to iin this case are shown as two in number, 22 be placed upon and closed about the pipe by and 26, spaced apart from each other in a simple operation ongthe part of a single direction generally circumferential of the 110 fically, in

wide for easy insertion arrangement 1s particularly desirable here tongs or pipe, and spaced by a distance suitable to adapt the pipe, or for instance, to a given size of pipe and to its collar. Latch 20 swings on a pivot 24, and is pressed by s ring 25 so that it is always urged inwardly against the latch lug; and the inner face 26 of the latch head is so formed that it will ride out over the back surfaces 27 of the latch lug as the tongs are closed about a pipe. The two outer segments 16 and 17 ma both be provided with handles 30 for c osing the segments about a pipe by hand, although only the handle on segment 17 is used when operating the tongs according to myinvention.

It will be readily understood from a consideration of the drawings how the latch will automatically engage when the segments are closed about a pipe, and how the latch lwill engage selectively with either shoulder 22 or shoulder 23, depending upon the size of the pipe being closed upon.

My arrangement for closing the tongs about a pipe comprises a means which holds the whole of one pipe encircling element substantially up tothe pipe while the other element 1s closed on the pipe; or, more specithis particular type of tongs, holds al1 the pivoted segments or jaws of one element up against the pipe;4 or, also more specifically, this is done lation of the handle. In the type of tongs here shown where each element comprises two pivoted segments, I provide means for holding 'both segments of one element substantially up to position against the pipe. Segment 14 has a stop shoulder 40 that is adapted to contactwith handle 10, when the handle is thrown to such a position as shown in-Figs. 2 and 4. Segment 14 also carries a stop shoulder 41 with which a part 42 of segment 16 is adapted to contact when segment 16 is in the position either of Fig. 2 or Fig. 4. The other two segments need no stop but it is preferred to provide segment 15 with a stop shoulder 43 to be contacted by part 44 of segment 17 when Asegment 17 is thrown out to open position, so as to cause segment 15 also to open, with the result that one side ofthe tongs are thus opened up of the pipe. This because, as will be noted, the action of stops 40 and 41, 42 prevents jaws 14 and 16 from eing thrown back to open the'tongs widely. Suppose now the ton s are to be applied to a smaller sized `ipe as shown in Fig. 2. The side inclu ing segments 15 and 17 is opened up tothe position shown in the full lines and the operator with one hand on handle 10 moves the other segments up to and against the pipe, and at the same time throws handle 10 around, in the-direction opposite to that indicated by the arrow, against stop 40. In this position the operatongs to different sizes of by a manipu- P tor moves the tongs up to the pipe until segments 16 and 14 are against it, or preferably until segment 14 bears against the pipe as shown in ig. 2.

In this position of the handle against stop 40, the operator can easily hold segment 14 against the pipe and keep it from swinging around away from the pipe; while segment 16 is kept from backing away from the pipe except to a limited distance as shown 1n Fig. 2 by the action of stops 41, 42. As

the operator performs these operations with one hand on the handle, he grasps handle 30 of segment 17 in the other hand, and closes it from the position shown in full lines in Fig. 2 to the position shown in dotted lines in that figure. The latchin lug with its two shoulders passes under atch 2O until latch shoulder 21 drops over lug shoulder 23. IVhen the parts reach this position the four segments are still loose upon the pipe, but the amount of looseness or back-off allowed segment 16 by the interaction 0f shoulder 41 and part 42 is not great enough that this segment, carrying the latch, can back off so far that latch shoulder 21 will not drop over lug shoulder 23. In describing the relative positions of the stops, it will be wellrst to refer to Fig. 1. In this figure the tongs are closed to the size of pipe In this position it` will be seen that latch shoulder 2l would theoretically just barely drop over lug shoulder 23 if segment 16 -could not back off. But in applying the tongs to a-pipe they must, of course, be applied loosely; and the inner circumference of the four segments is increased by throwing handle 10 from the position shown in F i". 1 to the position shown in Fig. 2. In other words, by so moving the handle, all four segments are loosened around the pipe, or as I might say, backed off from the pipe. Thus, when handle 10 reaches stop 40, a certain definite amount of loosening or circumferential expansion of thel four segments has been effected. Now, speaking in a general way, (although there are ,some minor. considerations that vary this somewhat) the amount by which the end of segment 16 can individually move circumferentially of the pipe, when it backs away from the pipe under limitation of-stops 41 and 42, must be less than the total amount of circumferential expansion that can be given all the segments by the specified movement of the handle 'from the position of Fig. 1 to that of Fig. 2. Now, stop 40 limits such movement of the handle relative to the segments, and stop parts 41 and 42 limit the amount of back-ofi' movement of segment 16 when the latch is not engaged. The relationship of limited movements thus above described'is such as will always cause latch shoulder 21 to be held in such a position that it will drop freely over lug Shoul- Fil - second lug shoulder 23.

larger-sized pipe,

der 23 when the tongs are being applied to the smaller sized pipe. And these limited movement relationships are in practice preferably so made that latch shoulder 21 has plenty of freedom (as indicated in Fig. 2) in dropping over lug shoulder 23.

New, when the device is applied to a or to a collar C for n.- stance ot' the pipe P, the latch will then engage with lug shoulder 22. l"`ig. 3 shows the tongs closed about such collar C with handle 10 in such a position so as to constrict the four segments about the collar. Fig. 4 shows the tongs in the act of being so applied. Here handle 1() is up Vagainst stop shoulder 4() as before, and part 42 of segment 16 has backed up against stop shoulder 4:1 as before. Segment 17 has been moved in as ar as it will move, and latch shoulder 21 has just dropped over lug shoulder 22. But in this position ot the parts, segment 17 cannot be moved'in Jfar enough to make latch shoulder 21 drop over the That it cannot do this is due to the fact that segment 16 is allowed to back away from the pipe tar enough to keep latch shoulder 21 from reaching lug shoulder 23. In practice'segment 16 will always be backed away to its limit by the action ot' the latch lug pushing against the latch. Now, I have previously said that the amount by which segment 16 can back away from its latching position must be less than what may be called the amount of circumterential loosening of the tongs as aV whole about the pipe by throwing handle 10 to itsback-oi position; and this is true of the arrangement both as applied to the small-sized and the larger-sized ipe But at the same time, segment 16 mustlbe allowed to back ott" to some extent with relation toV segment 14 so as to allow at least a small amount of free action between the two segments when they are tightened down upon the pipe; and in applying the tongs to a larger-sized pipe, that back-oft ot segment 16 is also desirable to keep latch shoulder 21 irom going on and dropping over the second lug shoulder 23. This is particularly true in tongs of certain sizes where the amount o back-od looseness (the total increase in circumterential size) ot the four segments due to back-off movement of the handle is greater than the circumferential distance or spacing between the two lug shoulders 22 and 23. Thus', where such general back-oil expansion is greater than lthe distance between those lug shoulders, segment 16 must be allowed an .individual back-0H movement that is, generally speaking, greater than the difference between the back-od e'ect ci the handle movement and the distance between lug shoulders 22 and 23. (lr, as it may be otherwise expressed, the distance between adjacent latching shoulders is greater than the difference between (a) the circumtert movement of the outer end of segment 16 in its backing-oli' movement. The three distances being thus interrelated, it will be seen that if (b) is made less then (a) will also be decreased, the shoulder spacing-remainf And it (b) were made to (if the individual backinging the same. approach zero ott' of `segment 16 were made very small, or practically none `at all, with relationto segment 111) then the condition would be that (a), the circumferential expansion by reason ot' backing oli ofthe handle, must be less than the distance between latching shoulders. As the distance between latching shoulders may be vsmall in some cases it is then desirable to order that (a) may be large enough to allow considerable loose freedom ot the tongs when beingapplied to a pipe. But where the shoulder spacing is large, (b). can be made small and, except for the-advantage of having a number of flexibly connected segments to contact withthe pipe, can be made to approach zero, or be quite zero; and then (a) becomes simply smaller than the shoulder spacing.

`While I have described a` preferred and specific form ot my invention with some degree of particularity, it will be understood that l have done so in order to make my invention clear by a full understanding of one specific form thereof; and have not done so for the purpose of limiting the -invention.

Having described a. preferred form of my invention, I claim:

1. In a pipe tongs, a handle and two independent pipe encircling'elements pivotally connected thereto so handle in one direction circumferentially constricts the elements about the pipe and movement in the other direction circumferentiallylexpands the elements to back them olii' from the pipe, one of said elements being made up of a pair of segments one of which is pivoted to the handle and the other pivt oted to the handle-pivoted segment, stop means act-ing between the -handle and the handlepivoted segment and vstop means acting between the two segments to hold the two segments loosely up to the pipe when .the handle is in back-0E position; the amount of loose movement circumterentially about the pipe, allowed the end of the vsecond mentioned segment by said stop means, when the handle is inback-ol position, being less than cthe whole circumferential expansion given the elements by backing oi movement ot the handle; and means to detachably connect the outer ends of the two elements together hold the elements about the pipe.. n f 2. In a pipe tongs, a handle and two indehave (Z2) fairly large in" that movement of the pendent pipe encircling elements pivotally connected thereto so that movement of the handle in one direction circumferentially constricts the elements about the pipe and movement in the other direction circumferentially expands the elements to back them off from the pipe, one of said elements being made up of a pair of segments one-of which is pivoted to the handle and the other pivoted to the handle-pivoted segment, stop means acting between the handle and the handle-pivoted segment and stop means acting between the two segments to hold the two segments loosely up to the pipe when the handle is in back-off position; the amount of loose movement, circumferentially about the pipe, allowed the end of the second mentioned segment by said stop means, when the handle is in back-off position, being less than the whole circumferential expansion given the elements by backing off movement of the handle; and automatic latching means to connect the free ends of the two elements when the other one of said elements is closed to position around the pipe.

In a pipe tongs, a handle and two independent pipe encirclingr elements pivotally connected thereto so that movement of the handle in one direction circumferentially constricts the elements about the pipe and movement in the other direction circumferentially expands the elements to back them off from the pipe, one of said elements being made up of a pair of segments one of which is pivoted to the handle and the otherpivoted to the handle-pivoted segment, stop means acting between the handle and the handle-pivoted segment and stop means acting between the two segments to hold the two segments loosely up to the pipe when the handle is in back-off position; the amount of loose movement, circumferentially about the pipe, allowed the end of the second mentioned segment by said stop means, when the handle is in back-ofi' position, being less than the whole circumferential expansion given the elements by backing olf movement of the handle; and automatic latching means t0 connect the free ends of the two elements when the other element is closed to position around the pipe, said latching means embodying a. spring-actuated latch member on one of the elements and a lug member on the other element,r one of said members having a plurality of circumferential] spaced latch shoulders so that the two members may interengage to latch the elements around pipe of different sizes, the circumferential distances between adjacent latch shoulders being greater than the difference between (a) the circumferential expansion given the elements by backing-off movement of the handle and (b) the circumferential loose movement of the end of the second mentioned segment.

In witness that I claim the foregoing, I have hereunto subscribed my name.

ROBERT ADAMS. 

